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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Petraeus: Iraq 'Challenges' to Last for Years
Conditions in Iraq will not improve sufficiently by September to justify a drawdown of U.S. military forces, the top commander in Iraq said (Sunday). Asked whether he thought the job assigned to an additional 30,000 troops deployed as the centerpiece of President Bush's new war strategy would be completed by then, Gen. David H. Petraeus replied: "I do not, no. I think that we have a lot of heavy lifting to do."

Humor Ink

The World

US and Russia Conclude: Iraq Had No WMD
The U.S. and Russia have agreed to dismantle the U.N. agency that searched Iraq for weapons of mass destruction and affirm that Saddam Hussein's government had no such arms at the time of the American invasion in March 2003.

U.S. and Iraqi forces move on insurgents
BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces launched attacks on the capital's northern and southern flanks to clear out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen who were chased from the capital and Anbar province during the first four months of the Baghdad security operation, military officials said Monday.

West restores direct aid to Palestinians as Abbas asserts control
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and Europe Monday restored direct aid to the Palestinians in a show of support after president Mahmud Abbas fired a Hamas-led government following deadly internecine clashes.

Abbas tells Bush to push peace talks
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An emboldened Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told President Bush on Monday that now is the time to renew Mideast peace talks, as the emergency government he installed reaped its first windfalls when Europe and the United States promised to restore crucial aid.

More than 100 die in NATO-Taliban battle
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - More than 100 people, including militants, civilians and police, have died in three days of fierce clashes between NATO forces and Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Monday.

Bomb wounds 13 in Thailand's south
BANGKOK, Thailand - A bomb exploded at a busy teashop in southern Thailand on Monday, wounding 13 people, police said.

The Nation

Newly empowered Democrats draw wrath of voters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new Democratic-led Congress is drawing the ire of voters upset with its failure to quickly deliver on a promise to end the Iraq war. This is reflected in polls that show Congress -- plagued by partisan bickering mostly about the war -- at one of its lowest approval ratings in a decade. Surveys find only about one in four Americans approves of it. "I understand their disappointment," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "We raised the bar too high."
No, Senator Reid. You didn’t raise the bar too high. You hardly promised anything. Still, we gave you a majority to fight George Bush, and you haven’t done it. THAT’s the problem. —Caro

Failing Pakistan Policy ‘Essentially Being Run From Cheney’s Office’
Cheney’s office has been linked to some of the most damaging and reckless policies carried out under President Bush, including the origins of the war in the Iraq, warrantless domestic spying, the historic expansion of executive authority and the sanctioning of torture. It’s no surprise to find Cheney’s fingerprints on the failing U.S.-Pakistan policy as well.

Report: Bush aides may have circumvented records act
The destruction of e-mails from top White House officials “could be the most serious breach of the Presidential Records Act in the 30-year history of the law,” according to an interim report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Report: Bush "Signing Statements" May Have Affected Implementation of Laws
(The Government Accountability Office) examined a sample of appropriations bills from last year, focusing on 19 provisions that were affected by a presidential signing statement added to a bill… The result: of the 19 provisions, six were not executed as authorized by Congress. (According to a report published Monday) it's not clear that the agencies disobeyed the law because the president said they could disobey it.
It’s at least suggestive. VERY suggestive. —Caro

Immigration bill gets 1 last chance
WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced an updated immigration bill Monday, launching one more attempt to conclude debate on the contentious issue and approve the measure in the Senate before Congress breaks for the 4th of July holiday.

GOP Congressman Proud of Earmarks
Oops, someone has missed a page in the Republic playbook. As President Bush and other GOPers criticize Democrats for earmarks in various bills, Republican Rep. Don Young (AK) is crowing about his very own special interests…

Loan Wolves
When Bill Clinton entered office, he tried to reform the inefficient student-loan program… Conservatives forced a compromise that created direct loans but also kept guaranteed loans and let colleges choose which kind to use… After an initial burst of popularity, direct loans stagnated, and many colleges began returning to the old guaranteed-loan system. Conservatives held this up as proof of the superior efficiency of the free-enterprise system… Only it now turns out that the private lenders' success came not through superior efficiency but through superior graft.
If Republicans are involved, you can be almost certain that superior graft is part of the package. —Caro

U.S. attorneys fallout seeps into courts
Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics.
The behavior of the Bush administration will call into question every single action of the Justice Department since January 20, 2001. This is what you get, Republicans, for trying to politicize all of government. —Caro

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

New Twist in Immigration Fight is Big News: June 10 - 15, 2007
It took major Presidential intervention, but the changing fortunes of the controversial immigration reform legislation helped make that the leading story last week. Even so, U.S. domestic politics were almost overshadowed by coverage of outbreaks of violence in the Mideast. And why did the ending of one cable series make the nightly network broadcasts?

Bob Woodward: Yes, I Should Have Probed Iraqi WMD More Closely
NEW YORK The venue was a bit odd -- an online chat marking the 35th anniversary of the Watergate burglary -- but it produced one of the clearest admissions yet by Washington Post editor/reporter Bob Woodward that he was among the many who fumbled the ball on pre-war Iraqi WMDs… "I think the press and I in particular should have been more aggressive in looking at the run-up to the Iraq war…"
But now they realize the error of their ways, don’t they? No, not exactly. See below. —Caro

Asleep at the Wheel
On October 17, 2006, when George W. Bush signed the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2007—a $538 billion military spending bill—he enacted into law a section called “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies.” In the view of many, this Act substantially changed fundamental laws of the United States, giving Bush—and all future U.S. presidents—new and sweeping powers to use the U.S. military anywhere in the United States, virtually as he sees fit—for disaster relief, crowd control, suppression of public disorder, or any “other condition” that might arise. News coverage of these significant changes in the law has been virtually nonexistent.

Print will survive, but the future of daily journalism is digital
That's how Mark Bowden sees it. "I advise young journalists today to learn how to use a digital video camera, and to get used to working in multimedia," he writes. "Nearly every story I write today for the Atlantic, and every book I undertake, I do in conjunction with a documentary filmmaker. This results in a documentary version of the story, which can be marketed to TV but also compiles the audio and video needed to produce a Web presentation ...If a dinosaur like me can do that, just think what a creative young mind raised in front of a video screen and keyboard will come up with. I literally can't imagine."

The End of TV As We Know It
(T)echnologically speaking, TV is slowly evolving toward a more Internet-like medium… For advertisers, that may mean more targeted ads that are personalized to the interests of viewers, and therefore less likely to be skipped. But what may get lost in all of this is the sense of community that broadcast television introduced into our culture—television may cease to be a mass-audience medium.
Gee, what I remember is the sense of community being totally destroyed by television, along with air conditioning. We lost a lot when people stopped sitting on their porches and talking to their neighbors. —Caro

33 Ways to Watch Free TV Online
The future of media is the Internet, and television is no exception. Instead of browsing through the channels with your remote, you could be browsing through the free online TV providers on your computer - hell, if you like, you can watch them all at once (in really tiny windows). It’s time to reach out and see how much free online TV we can find.
Now there are 34, with the new GoLeft.tv. —Caro

Technology & Science

AT&T quietly offers $10 DSL plan
NEW YORK - Without any sort of fanfare, AT&T Inc. has started offering a broadband Internet service for $10 a month, cheaper than any advertised plan.

Google Web Accelerator
Web Accelerator is designed to speed up web pages primarily for broadband users. The service enhances your connection by making use of Google’s massive computer network, storing copies of frequently viewed pages, and several other methods. Accelerator also keeps performance statistics, allowing you to track how much time it has saved you.
This is the kind of service that providers can legitimately charge more for, or in the case of Google, charge at all. —Caro

Wireless Technology Takes A Leap Forward
Chip designer Alereon is out with what it says is the first computer chip to use a frequency that is legal all over the world for wireless USB ? a technology with the potential to reduce the tangle of cables many computers now use.

Restaurant Reservations Go Online
After decades of relying on telephones to book tables, the restaurant business has gone high-tech.

Making black holes in the lab (conclusion), and space's extra dimension
Can scientists create a black hole in a laboratory? What would it take to create a black hole in a lab? This, the third of a three-part article, describes a strange universe in which black hole production in the lab is possible. Space may have a fourth, warped dimension.

Hopes dim for life on distant planet
Scientists might have picked the right star for hosting a habitable world, but got the planet wrong. The world known as Gliese 581c is probably too hot to support liquid water or life, new computer models suggest, but conditions on its neighbor, Gliese 581d, might be just right.

Environment

Senate debates $15 bln in energy incentives
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Monday pressed ahead with a Democrat-driven rewrite of American energy policy that would strip nearly $15 billion in tax breaks from large companies and put the money toward making energy from clean, renewable sources like wind, solar and soybeans.

Interest groups could slow energy action
WASHINGTON - Three powerful lobbying forces — automakers, electric utilities and the coal industry — are confounding Democrats' efforts to forge a less-polluting energy policy.

Air Force Hopes to Cut Oil’s Role in Fuel
The United States Air Force will push development of a new fuel to power its bombers and fighters, mixing conventional and nonpetroleum fuels.

White Is the New Green
Prepare yourselves for white parking lots and roofs, as the reflective shade joins green on the environment-friendly color palette

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